Consensus based recommendations for diagnosis and medical management of Poland syndrome (sequence).

Background: Poland syndrome (OMIM: 173800) is a disorder in which affected individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of the body, resulting in abnormalities that can affect the chest, breast, shoulder, arm, and hand. The extent and severity of the abnormalities vary among affected individuals.

Main Body: The aim of this work is to provide recommendations for the diagnosis and management of people affected by Poland syndrome based on evidence from literature and experience of health professionals from different medical backgrounds who have followed for several years affected subjects.

Day-to-day variability of electrocardiographic diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy in hypertensive patients. Influence of electrode placement.

Objective: Although electrocardiography (ECG) is recommended in all subjects with hypertension, no information is available on the influence exerted by random changes in the placement of electrodes on the day-to-day variability of ECG criteria for diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

Methods: In a multicentre, randomized study, two standard 12-lead ECG were recorded, 24 h apart, from 276 consecutive hypertensive patients (mean age 65 +/- 12 years, 49.6% men).

Clinical and pharmacological profile in a clenbuterol epidemic poisoning of contaminated beef meat in Italy.

Long-acting beta adrenergic agonists, such as clenbuterol accumulate in the liver, but not meat of treated farm animals, and result in epidemic poisonings in consumers. We describe an outbreak of poisoning in 15 people, following the consumption of meat. Clinical symptoms (distal tremors, palpitations, headache, tachipnoea-dyspnoea, and also moderate hyperglycaemia, hypokalemia and leucocytosis) were seen in nine hospitalised patients, starting about 0.

Prognostic value of 24-hour blood pressure in pregnancy.

Context: Elevated blood pressure (BP) measured at the physician's office may reflect true hypertension or white coat hypertension (WCH). The prognostic value of WCH among pregnant women is unknown.

Objective: To assess the prognostic value of WCH in pregnancy.

Twenty four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in women with pre-eclampsia.

The aim of our study was to evaluate by means of ambulatory 24 h monitoring the diurnal systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure profiles in a group (n = 18) of gravid patients with pre-eclampsia compared with a group (n = 17) of healthy control subjects matched for age and week of gestation to assess whether: (i) ambulatory BP is also raised in pre-eclampsia; (ii) the increase of BP, if present, occurs to the same extent during both daytime and night; and (iii) a blunted BP pattern is consistently present in pre-eclampsia. BP was recorded at intervals of 15 min for 25 h using a TM2420 non-invasive pressurometer. The presence of a circadian rhythm of BP was assessed by cosinor analysis.

Ethanol-specific impairment of T-lymphocyte activation is caused by a transitory block in signal-transduction pathways.

Background: Immune system derangement is characteristic of alcoholic liver cirrhosis. However, in vitro studies have never clarified the alcohol-induced T-lymphocyte dysfunction. The aim of this study was to examine any discrete phenotypical and functional abnormalities and possible impairment in transmembrane signal-transduction pathways that, if present on lymphocytes of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, would also be reproducible after in vitro ethanol exposure of normal T cells.

IgG subclass deficiency and sinopulmonary bacterial infections in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Abnormalities in IgG subclass distribution were sought in serum samples and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from 15 patients with alcoholic liver disease to explain their increased susceptibility to bacterial respiratory infections. Serum IgG4 deficiency alone or in association with low IgG2 levels was revealed in approximately 30% of patients with alcoholic liver disease. This fact prompted us to further investigate the immunoglobulin concentrations in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid, paying special attention to the distribution of IgA and IgG subclasses.

T-lymphocyte activation pathways in alcoholic liver disease.

Immune system derangement in cirrhotic patients with evidence of malnutrition is a well-recognized characteristic of chronic alcohol abuse. However, in vitro studies on cellular immune function performed with lectin mitogens have produced conflicting results. The recent development of more accurate immunological techniques for studying lymphocyte transformation, that use monoclonal antibodies directed against surface structures (CD3 and CD2) involved in antigen recognition, as well in adhesion functions, prompted us to study discrete in vitro T-cell hypo-responsiveness in a series of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) patients with no evidence of malnutrition or hepatic cirrhosis.

Immunoregulatory T cells in alcoholic liver disease: phenotypical dissection of circulating Leu3+/T4+ inducer T-lymphocytes.

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) patients had normal absolute lymphocyte counts, increased percentage of Leu3+/T4+ cells (p less than 0.001) and raised T4/T8 ratio (p less than 0.01).

Immunological studies in patients with alcoholic liver disease: evidence for the in vivo activation of helper T cells and of the monocyte-macrophage system.

Immunologic parameters were evaluated in 22 patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Patients with ALD had increased levels of circulating immune complexes (CIC) and serum immunoglobulins, particularly IgA. The classical complement pathway was preferentially activated in CIC-positive patients.